LGBT desk in every police station pushed

A lawmaker has filed a bill creating a lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) desk in every police station to ensure that victims of hate or sexually oriented crimes will have a place to go to for assistance.

Rep. Sol Aragones of the 3rd district of Laguna province, author of House Bill 2571, said there are reports that people belonging to LGBT are victims of sexually oriented crimes in the country.

“These reports highlight the very real and pressing problem confronting the LGBT community in the Philippines,” Aragones said.

The bill seeks to amend Republic Act 8551, also known as the Philippine National Police Reform and Reorganization Act of 1998, by adding another desk in all police stations to attend to cases involving crimes against LGBT people.

RA 8551 has created Women’s Desks in all police stations throughout the country to administer and attend to cases involving crimes against chastity, sexual harassment, abuses committed against women and children and other similar offenses; and formulated a Gender Sensitivity Program.

“There can be no true and meaningful democracy if we continue to systematically oppress the LGBT sector,” Aragones said.

Aragones said various human rights violations against LGBT complaints in the Philippines were submitted to the United Nations.

Aragones cited the report on the Status of LGBT Rights in the Philippines, Submission to the Human Rights Council for the Universal Periodic Review 13th Session, which the groups Rainbow Rights Project (R-Rights) and the Philippine LGBT Hate Crime Watch (PLHCW) co-authored a documentation of different abuses based on sexual orientation and gender identity in the country since 2007.

The second report entitled “A Report on Violations of Human Rights Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in the Philippines,” authored by the Progressive Organization of Gays in the Philippines (ProGay), according to Aragones.

Under the measure, the Philippine National Police, aside from the existing women’s desk shall establish lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender’s desks in all police stations throughout the country to administer and attend to cases involving crimes against chastity, sexual harassment, hate crimes, abuses committed against women, children, and members of the LGBT community and other similar offenses. PNA